1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a switch used for receiving and transmitting data between lines in information communication systems.
2. Background of the Invention
Major types of the information communication systems, especially LAN such as Ethernet and ATM-LAN, have used a transmission line shared with all terminals. However, increase in quantity of data to be received and transmitted over LAN and increase in the number of terminals connected to LAN have increased the difficulty of obtaining sufficient transmission capacity in LAN of this type. This fact has recently encouraged the use of a LAN switch in systems so that each terminal can use the whole band of the transmission line which is available for transmission thereby solving the above-described problem.
A conventional LAN switch, however, performs data switching on the transmission line by software processing using a processor, so that it is difficult to improve processing capabilities. For example, a bottle neck in a switch device may limit the band for transmission, although, properly considering performance of the transmission line, the full bond is available for transmission.